Acts 15:2-25

²A commotion therefore having taken place, and no small discussion on the part of Paul and Barnabas against them, they arranged that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others from amongst them, should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.

³They therefore, having been set on their way by the assembly, passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, relating the conversion of those of the nations. And they caused great joy to all the brethren.

⁴And being arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly, and the apostles, and the elders, and related all that God had wrought with them.

⁵And some of those who were of the sect of the Pharisees, who believed, rose up from among them, saying that they ought to circumcise them and enjoin them to keep the law of Moses.

⁶And the apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter.

⁷And much discussion having taken place, Peter, standing up, said to them, Brethren, ye know that from the earliest days God amongst you chose that the nations by my mouth should hear the word of the glad tidings and believe.

⁸And the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit as to us also,

⁹and put no difference between us and them, having purified their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now therefore why tempt ye God, by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that we shall be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same manner as they also.

¹²And all the multitude kept silence and listened to Barnabas and Paul relating all the signs and wonders which God had wrought among the nations by them.

¹³And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Brethren, listen to me:

¹⁴Simon has related how God first visited to take out of the nations a people for his name.

¹⁵And with this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written:

¹⁶After these things I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and will rebuild its ruins, and will set it up,

¹⁷so that the residue of men may seek out the Lord, and all the nations on whom my name is invoked, saith the Lord, who does these things

¹⁸known from eternity.

¹⁹Wherefore I judge, not to trouble those who from the nations turn to God;

²⁰but to write to them to abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

²¹For Moses, from generations of old, has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath.

²²Then it seemed good to the apostles and to the elders, with the whole assembly, to send chosen men from among them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, Judas called Barsabas and Silas, leading men among the brethren,

²³having by their hand written thus: The apostles, and the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are from among the nations at Antioch, and in Syria and Cilicia, greeting:

²⁴Inasmuch as we have heard that some who went out from amongst us have troubled you by words, upsetting your souls, saying that ye must be circumcised and keep the law; to whom we gave no commandment;

²⁵it seemed good to us, having arrived at a common judgment, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,